Misery Is a Butterfly

Their first album in four years! Blonde Redhead's style has evolved over their decade-long career to include everything from art-punk to '60s European pop to Serge Gainsbourg. But they've always had a sound that was uniquely their own -- you always know when Blonde Redhead is on the stereo. "Misery Is a Butterfly," their latest album, is as much of a creative leap forward from their last record as that record was from its predecessors. Throughout, the band's gently mournful economy of style is adorned by a cinematic breadth of instrumentation, and although the lyric writing is split as usual between Kazu and Amedeo, the rich depth of the arrangements creates a striking unity of purpose. Additionally, "Misery Is a Butterfly" features some of the most tender music in the Blonde Redhead catalogue -- tracks like "Anticipation" and "Magic Mountain" swell and shimmer with wistful melodies and delicately-placed skeins of sound. Keyboards, violins, and cellos swirl through the mix, conjuring plangent atmospheres and making "Misery Is a Butterfly" an overwhelmingly fluid and rich counterpoint to the angular starkness of Blonde Redhead's early releases.